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Rabbinic Statement of Concern

I need your help with what’s happening in Jerusalem.

Last week, Israeli newspapers reported that Mayor Nir Barkat is backing the candidacy of Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu for the post of Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. Rabbi Eliyahu’s history of divisive statements and actions is, unfortunately, a matter of long record. Israeli organizations such as the Israel Religious Action Center, Tag Meir, and Yerushalem have long worked to keep Rabbi Eliyahu from assuming positions of prominence in Israeli public life. And just last summer Israel’s Attorney General Yehudah Weinstein designated Rabbi Eliyahu as unfit for the office of Chief Rabbi of Israel.

We need to let Mayor Barkat know that appointing someone with a history of extremist, exclusionary behavior as Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem sends exactly the wrong message. In a city that is polarizing between Jews and Arabs, and between the various streams of Judaism represented there, any chief rabbi appointed should demonstrate the ability to listen, to conciliate and to unite.

Prominent rabbinic voices from all streams of American Judaism are serving as convening signers on a letter of concern, which we will deliver to Mayor Barkat in advance of the upcoming election for Jerusalem Chief Rabbi. Several of the mayor’s appointees sit on the municipal commission that elects the chief rabbi, and that is the reason we are directing our sentiments to him.

Please join these colleagues in making sure that Mayor Barkat knows that rabbinic leadership throughout the world is united in forceful opposition to appointing a figure like Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu to such a prominent, symbolically significant post.